A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 105 



kettle and ate our bread and smoked trout. While we were 

 doing so a heavy fall of " sleepy snow " came on, and the 

 bad weather looked as if it had set in for the day. But it 

 proved better than we hoped. When the snow ceased we 

 moved on, but presently took shelter again. By this time 

 it was growing late, and as we were six or seven miles from 

 camp I was about to suggest that we should turn our faces 

 towards it, when Jack proposed going to the brow of the 

 next rise arid having one last spy round. 



Over the rise we saw eleven does, one small stag, and 

 another partially shut in by scrub. We looked for some 

 time with the glass, but could not get a satisfactory view of 

 this stag, when a third, which had been lying behind him, 

 rose and thrust out his head between the spruce boughs. A 

 glance showed it to be a magnificent one. He gradually 

 came out and lay down again in the lee of another cluster 

 of spruces, giving me the chance of examining him more 

 closely. Through the glass I could see that he had, at any 

 rate, one very large brow. Then he raised his head and 

 showed great palmated bays, a large curling spike behind 

 each. He was of a peculiarly white colour, with antlers of 

 a much lighter red than common. 



I decided at once to shoot him if I could, which seemed 

 very doubtful, as he was not favourably placed for stalking ; 

 besides which a young stag and two does had moved along 

 and lain down on a hillside about one hundred and fifty 

 yards to our right and commanding our position among the 

 cranberry roots. We were not more than two hundred 

 and fifty yards from our quarry, but he was lying down in 

 such a position that the only chance was a shot at his neck. 

 About eighty yards from us, and nearer the stag, stood a thin 

 cluster of junipers, and to this I crawled across a very wet 

 swamp. Again I spied through the telescope, and was 

 confirmed in my opinion. The stag carried a glorious head, 

 furnished with a forest of points. 



40 



